06/26/23 06/26/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> betrayal of the country. five and died for, side-by-side with her other units. amy: vladimir putin tries to restore calm after a short-lived

unique by the wagner mercenary group comes to an end with a deal that exiles the chief yevgeny prigozhin and dropped all charges against those who join the rebellion that reach the outskirts of moscow. even the dropping of charges design clear at moment. we will host a roundtable with nina khrushcheva and speak with an expert on the wagner. then dueling rallies and washington, d.c. come is pro-choice and antitrust activists marked the first anniversary of the supreme court's dobbs decision to overturn roe v. wade. vice president pence led the anti-choice activists. vice pres. pence: because of your work and because of your prayers, the supreme court of the united states sent roe v. wade to the ash history of --

ash heap of history where belongs. amy: we will get an update a year after dobbs. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. russia's military has withdrawn troops and tanks from the streets of moscow after the head of the wagner mercenary group called off a short-lived armed mutiny he launched on friday. wagner fighters stopped their advance on the outskirts of moscow late saturday after officials reached a deal that guaranteed their safety. they also withdrew from the southern russian city of rostov, which they had seized, and returned to their bases. as part of the deal, wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin agreed to go into exile in belarus. the kremlin also said he and his fighters would avoid criminal charges despite the revolt. on saturday, putin made a brief national address in which he refrained from mentioning prigozhin by name but denounced

his actions as treason. >> protect our people and our statehood of any threats, including betrayal. what we are facing is betrayal. betrayal of the country come the people, and the cause for which the soldiers and commanders of the wagner fought and died for, side-by-side with her other units. amy: volodymyr zelenskyy said the revolt by wagner mercenary's exposed chaos in russia. after headlines, we will go to moscow and kyiv for the latest. in sudan, fighters with the paramilitary rapid support forces stormed the headquarters of a heavily armed police unit in khartoum on sunday, seizing stockpiles of weapons and ammunition. since saturday evening, there have been reports of intense air strikes and artillery fire across sudan's capital region. in the western darfur region, witnesses say fighting killed at least a dozen civilians on

sunday. witnesses say rsf fighters have joined arab militias in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in darfur. unicef reports fighting in sudan has displaced 2.5 million people, with at least 330 children among the dead. in syria, at least nine people were killed and dozens more injured sunday as russian warplanes attacked rebel-held parts of the northwestern province of idlib. in the bloodiest attack, a russian fighter jet bombed a vegetable market crowded with shoppers. guatemala's presidential election is headed to a runoff after no candidate received over 50% of votes needed to claim victory sunday. former vice president and first lady sandra torres of the centrist party national unity of hope appeared to be in the lead. torres previously ran for president twice and has been accused of corruption and campaign finance violations. congressmember bernardo arévalo of the progressive movimiento semilla party placed second, surprising many.

he's the son of former president juan josé arévalo who pushed for revolutionary social reforms when he was in office from 1945 to 1951. semilla hapromoted the protecti of human and indigenous rights, press freedom, and policies combating the climate crisis, among other measures. in sierra leone, voters took to the polls to choose a new president over the weekend amid a catastrophic economic crisis and spiraling living costs. current president julius maada bio and his main opponent samura kamara have both claimed victory, though ficial rests have y to be released. olent class erupted following the election, with police firing tear gast supporters of the all people's ngress oosition partas they awaed election sults outside thparty'headquarte in t capitalreetown. one woman was serely wounded by the crackdown. a party representative spoke to reporters as heavily armed soldiers forced people from the building.

>> the next thing we knew, we started hearing firing. [indiscernible] all of the buildings surrounding have been damaged. [indiscernible] amy: in greece, conservative prime minister kyriakos mitsotakis is celebrating reelection after his new democracy party won over 40% of votes in sunday's run-off vote. the leftist opposition party syriza came in a distant second with just 20% of the vote. a newly created far-right party known as the spartans took almost 5%, surpassing the 3% threshold to enter parliament. mitsotakis came to power in 2019 after an anti-immigrant campaign in which he pledged to slow the -- pledged to block the arrival of asylum seekers on greek shores. northern china suffered a weekend of record temperatures,

with highs in the capital beijing topping 40 degrees celsius, or 104 degrees fahrenheit, for three consecutive days. authorities one of more excessive heat and recommend people limit their time outdoors. this is a 28-year-old beijing resident. >> i am worried but i think i'm young and can still handle it. the temperature outside is just too high. if your physical strength is not good or you have high blood pressure, you could get heat stroke. amy: scientists are sounding the alarm over an extreme ocean heatwave in the north atlantic, where surface temperatures are a much as degrees celsius, or 9 degrees fahrenheit, above normal. marine biologists have described the unprecedented warming as a marine wildfire. it threatens a mass die-offs of fish, oysters, and other wildlife. in panama, authorities are preparing to reduce the number of ships allowed to the panama

canal and are considering new weight restrictions on vessels making the transit. a severe drought has led to a shortage of water needed for locks that help move container ships across the canal. here ithe united states, high humidity and extreme temperatures above 100 degrees hrenheit a forecasto continue in texas for much of the week. parts of southwest texas hit 119 degrees fahrenheit friday, just one gree shy otexas' all-time highest temperature recorded three decades ago. in paris, dozens of heads of state wrapped up a two-day summit on climate finance friday without an agreement to tax greenhouse gas emissions produced from international shipping. u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen said the biden administration would consider the proposal, which was advanced by french president emmanuel macron who hosted the summit. the climate action group oil change international noted leaders of wealthy nations were largely absent from the meeting, saying they missed a critical opportunity to redirect billions of dollars from fossil fuels,

debt, and the ultrarich to address the climate crisis. this is mitzi tan, a climate activist from the philippines who joined protests on the sidelines of the talks. >> we're in this crisis together. we're not equally impacted. but we all have to band together and demand justice, demand for no more fossil fuels. we need to ensure that communities and marginalized people across the world are able to access the finance and attack, mitigate, and live in this climate crisis. mango hundreds of abortion supporters rallied in washington, d.c. come over the weekend, marking the first anniversary of the supreme court's decision to overturn abortion rights under the 1973 ruling roe v. wade. this is one of the protesters, nadine seiler. >> we need to be engaged. if we don't show up and

participate, we get what we get. amy: the protests came as anti-choice activists also rallied in washington, d.c. former vice-president and 2024 republican presidential hopeful mike pence told a gathering of christian conservatives the supreme court's decision overturning roe was a historic victory but said it didn't go far enough and called for a nationwide 15-week ban on abortions. vice pres. pence: because of your work and because of your prayers, the supreme court of the united states send roe v. wade to the and sheep of history where it belongs and give america a new beginning of life. amy: we'll have more on the fight over reproductive rights in the u.s. later in the broadcast with amy littlefield, abortion access correspondent at "the nation." millions of lgbtqia and supporters celebrateride over the weekd. in tury come advocates led rallies come to find a band by the conservative government of the president who has been

condemned by human rights oups for violently targeting lgbtqia people with hate speech and discrinatory polies. last sunday, a trance pride march was also attacked by turkish police after activist gaered acros istanbul despite the ban, was secured he forces firing rubber bullets and tear gas at demonstrators. in mexico city, dozens of lgbtq+ couples held a mass wedding to kick off pride celebrations. this is edgar mendoza, who married his partner of a decade >> i feel very happy because we've been together for 10 years and with his marriage, we got to take another step that we wanted, which is to become a more stable family. i think this document is very important. beyond being a paper for marriage symbol, it is the security i can bring to my family. amy: in the u.s., millions participated in pride marches and hundreds of cities around the country, including new york

city, chicago, houston, san francisco, to urge supporters to unite and continue fighting the face of intensifying attacks against the lgbtqia community. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. as russian president vladimir putin tries to restore calm after short-lived mutiny friday by the wagner mercenary group, we will host a roundtable discussion. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "soma" by smashing pumpkins. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we begin today's show in russia, where the government is working to restore calm after a short-lived armed mutiny was launched friday by the wagner mercenary group.

wagner fighters stopped their advance on the outskirts of moscow late saturday after officials reached a deal that guaranteed their safety. they also withdrew from the southern russian city of rostov which they had seized and returned to their bases. as part of the deal, wagner group chief yevgeny prigozhin agreed to go into exile in belarus, where president aleksandr lukashenko is a close ally of putin. lukashenko mediated the deal. the kremlin also said the wagner group head and his fighters would avoid criminal charges despite the revolt. though today, that is now being called into question. today, state-controlled tv in russia showed footage of defense minister sergei shoigu meeting with russian military officers in ukraine, though it is unclear when that footage was from. also today on russian tv, prime minister mikhail mishustin made the first public comments by a

senior russian official since the deal was made. >> russia is going through an important time in history as the president noted, virtually the entire military, economic, information machine of the west is directed against as. we need to make calculated unify decisions to effectively achieve goals set by the leader of the state. amy: this comes as russian president vladimir putin made a brief national address saturday and refrained from mentioning the wagner group leader by name but denounced his actions as treason. >> protect our people and statehood. what we are facing is betrayal. excessive ambition vested interests have led to treason, the trail of the country. -- betrayal of the country.

they fought and died for side-by-side with her other units. amy: meanwhile, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy said in his nightly video address saturday that the revolt by wagner mercenary troops in russia had exposed chaos in the country. at one point, he switched to his native language of russian to address russians and putin. >> i will say in russian, the man from the kremlin is afraid and probably hiding somewhere, not showing himself. i'm sure he is no longer in moscow. he calls from somewhere and asked for something. he knows what he is afraid of because he himself created the threat stop all evil, all hatred. he himself spreads it. what will we ukrainians do? we will defend our country, defend our freedom. we will not be silent and we will not be inactive. we know how to win. it will happen. what will you do?

the longer your troops stay on ukrainian land, the worse the more disasters it will be. amy: on sunday, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken said the wagner group rebellion revealed cracks in putin's power. he spoke on abc news. >> i think this is clearly we see cracks emerging. where they go, if anywhere, when they get there, very hard to say. i don't want to speculate but i don't think we have seen the final act. this has been devastating failure for putin across every front. amy: this comes as nato secretary-general jens stoltenberg said monday the aborted rebellion demonstrated the scale of the kremlin's strategic mistake in waging war on ukraine. >> the events over the weekend are an internal russian matter. and yet a demonstration of the

big strategic mistake president putin made with his legal annexation of crimea and the war against ukraine. as russia continues its assault, it is more important to continue support ukraine. amy: we begin our coverage in moscow where we are joined by nina khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at the new school. she is the great-granddaughter of former soviet premier nikita khrushchev. her books include "the lost khrushchev: journey into the gulag of the russian mind" and "in putin's footsteps: searching for the soul of an empire across russia's eleven time zones." professor, welcome back to democracy now! this is the first show we have done since the wagner rebellion. we have not seen prigozhin, though they said he is going to go into exile in belarus. we also have not seen putin

since he gave that speech on saturday. i now there are all sorts of questions, though the kremlin had all of the wagner folks, including prigozhin, would have the charges dropped, that is not clear right now. you're in moscow. what is the understanding of what happened among the russian people? >> thank you, amy. there is a little bit of -- in moscow, most confidence -- not confidence, but certainty that it is so inconceivable. that prigozhin is going to take over the kremlin. billions and billions of rubles

have been taken from the banks. flights have been filled. the airline prices doubled, tripled. people are preparing for the worst -- -- putin would have won after that very angry speech because prigozhin was his creation, he exists because putin allowed him to be around the military --

putin would have come out and explained to everybody how treason he supposedly hated on the morning on saturday -- it was a military mutiny and yet somehow they're going to be parts that putin is absolutely silent. the attorney general office is saying we are still working on it. still not clear how soon the charges would be dropped. i don't think it is a question, it is a question, is whether they continue to have some sort of negotiation. it would be very interesting to hear if prigozhin it's to belarus, if he does get to belarus in one piece. amy: if you could talk about the

significance of the place where the rebellion took over the city of over one million people, rest off, which is really -- rostov, which is the central command of the war on ukraine and the fact the russian people -- did you see this on russian television or in social media, and there is russian about will putin allow the social media to continue, that cheering of prigozhin by the people, people taking selfies with him -- this is before we no longer saw him. >> well, yes, rostov is close to ukraine. we don't know, but most likely there have been some --prigozhin walking but it was a coordinated effort, including probably with the people in the army because he was able to have a meeting

with two higher-ups in the russian army. this great concern and great hatred is for the minister of defense and suddenly they were there in the headquarters and he was kind of humiliating them being present. i think it seems to be that prigozhin and others, there's a little bit of a hope and it really did not work out the way they wanted it, that at least some in the russian army and the russian command, very disillusioned with the way the war in ukraine is going on with probably would be more supportive. i did not work out. the original idea was there, that is why they were not shot on. the prigozhinites were not shot on. it clearly, the news was -- the question is, now and for the

future how really strong this support for putin will remain and now many factions that probably are in the russian army or russian elites, how much they will continue to join together behind the kremlin leader. the negotiations were going on, obviously, right from the beginning. in some ways, prigozhin miscalculated which left him week but also if putin came a victor, it did not really show him in a strong light, either. even as president zelenskyy correctly pointed out, it adds two more discombobulated and among the russian elites and also the future of the war in ukraine. amy: you certainly know russia's history well.

is this a quashed rebellion or is this the beginning of fracks in the putin edifice? go back to 1991. go back to other failed coups. >> that is a fascinating question because it is a quashed rebellion in a sense. i would even disagree with antony blinken it is the beginning because we have seen right from the beginning of the war, almost a year and half ago, there is really not much -- it is very unequal. sometimes the voices for and sometimes against sometimes -- that solidity putin was able to

display until 2022 has been really waning away for the whole year plus. this is another moment of this kind of falling apart in cracks. i think the interesting part of the rebellion, and i cannot really speak to history here because basically what we're seeing is putin's right-wing government, militancy, nationalism is part of its agenda. prigozhin is a bloody nationalism, almost complete fascism part of the agenda. for, as you mentioned 1991, it was the liberals -- the reform ers against the hardliners. most coups have been like that. this is we have one kind of blatant fascism or less bloody nationalist versus extreme

bloody nationalist. and that is something i cannot remember in recent russian history ever happening. amy: i want to go to the voice of prigozhin. on saturday, the wagner chief set and recording that was on telegram he had ordered his fighters dancing to turn around and returned to their basis in order to avoid spilling russian blood. >> they want to disband the wagner military company. in 24 hours, we got within 200 kilometers on moscow. at this time we did not spill a single drop of our fighter's blood. now has come the time to spill blood. we're are turning our troops around and going back to field camps. amy: he called it a march of justice, but what will he change for him to turn around? did anything unproductive will happen? wasn't it the opposite? he met no resistance, just these

cheers. i want to get to has information been revealed to the russian people? seeing a top performer russian putin ally called putin's chef, they grew up in their political career in st. petersburg together, attacking the whole russian approach to ukraine and talking about the unnecessary deaths of russian soldiers? > well, yes. but then he is looking and asking for more unnecessary death of russian soldiers because he is looking for complete station, complete militarization. he actually is accusing putin, accusing kremlin, accusing the ministry of defense there should be more war. in many ways, like putin, he is

very skilled with rhetoric that is incredibly contradictory because he was asking to spill more russian blood. and another thing about the cheers, i would not really overestimate the cheers. yes, we see -- for people, it was entertainment. it was the heroes war of the war in ukraine going against other heroes of the war in ukraine. it was more of the sign of russian absurdity. one of the prigozhin tanks got stuck in a gate. well, that is kind of a symbol of what russia is all about. the cheering is the cheering of more to the absurdity. the people i talked to in moscow, they were saying, well, whoever putin's, my god, these

are a bunch of rapists and murderers. we certainly don't want to be ruled by people like those. for them, the worst choice is still a better choice. putin is the better choice for them most amy: we're talking to nina khrushcheva in moscow and we want to go to kyiv where we are joined by denis pilash, ukrainian political scientist and historian. he's a member of the ukrainian democratic socialist organization sotsialnyi rukh. he's also an editor at commons: journal of social criticism. thank you for joining us. certainly under very different circumstances. how was this rebellion is, if it is short-lived rebellion or is it the beginning of something perceived in kyiv? we just played president zelenskyy addressing russians and russian soldiers in russian, which is actually his first language. >> thank you, amy.

first of all, we should say even when russia was caught by this rebellion, mutiny, attempt of a coup, still ukrainian cities attacked by russian missiles as usual as they have been in the recent two months almost constantly. so we had people, civilians killed in kyiv and other places. ultimately, not much has changed in terms of this war on the cranes, including civilians, -- on ukrainians, putting civilians. russia's military is now reaping what it sewed. they brought death and discretion -- destruction to ukraine, and now it is coming back to russia itself. mainly in the same entities, the

wagner group. like private military companies, wagner was established for shady, sneaky -- giving them disposable deniability. as a rule, they display much less legal and moral constraints than regular armies and they commit more war crimes. just think about blackwater in erect. -- just think about blackwater in iraq. it has turned the extremely brutal way of --

it was promoted by state propaganda. there are constant war crimes committed in syria, ukraine, african countries. they include executions of civilians. they include rape and sexual violence. they include things like torture and extrajudicial killing of ukrainians. this massacre of hundreds of people, those were -- like spring 2022. wagner group is implied to have killed russian journalist who went to investigate their dealings the central african republic and also to have eliminated those of this progression warlords and donbas

in eastern ukraine that were deemed no more useful for the kremlin. this is the way they were doing their regular activities abroad. you can just imagine what they can do to russia, the people of what is now the russian federation itself. in africa, they engaged in some kind of 19th-century type colonialism, pillaging communities, installing military dictatorships. there were lots of -- immersed in russian and ukrainian social media concerning what can be compared to this short-lived mutiny of prigozhin's forces and lots were brought up. the closest one was exactly what you have already mentioned in

the news, about the recent conflict in sudan where a part of the ruling military junta, namely the are sf -- rsf that were involved in tennis i'll ask in darfur, both sides are equally oppressed and both are wagner clients. i completely agree with the professor, this is a way where you see an extremely oppressive authoritarian regime and it was a post at this point -- ultranationalist, far right fascist. this is something putin and

prigozhin both in body something terrible for those people inside russia and outside russia. another analogy that was brought up was mussolini's march in rome. you can see the parallels. amy: in addition to denis pilash , we are joined by kimberly marten, professor of political science at barnard college, columbia university. she has been working on the wagner group for years. as denis pilash talked about the far-reaching tentacles of the wagner group, i'm wondering if you can talk about for the american audience, is this like blackwater? talk about its origins. give us a description of who -- what the wagner group is an is founder's relationship with

putin. >> those are such important questions. the wagner group is not a private group in the way we think of them in the west. it is a contracting mechanism that has been used by the russian military intelligence agency since 2014 for various purposes around the world. it was first used in eastern ukraine in 2014. at that time prigozhin was not yet associated with it. it took on contract obligations in syria come in for two group, and about that time that prigozhin took it over. there is some evidence he may have taken over in a violent raid from its founder. in 2017, russia began to deploy the wagner group and various countries in africa, sudan, central african republic, eastern libya come to support groups there. there was an attempt to deploy

it some places that did not work out so well. recently we have seen it go into volley and there are rumors that it also may be going into burkina faso and chad. what we have seen about it is it is extraordinarily flexible contracting mechanism. we just heard about the terrible human rights violations and murderous activities that wagner has committed, it has done anything worse than the uniformed military forces have done. we have to keep in mind the uniformed russian military forces have been absolutely abysmal, have never followed the geneva convention in terms of their attacks on civilians in afghanistan, chechnya, syria. wagner does horrible things but it is essentially manned from that russian military forces. it has pilots that can engage

in air attacks. it has high level, highly disciplined snipers. it is not something that is separate from the russian state. it never has been. this leads to who prigozhin is. he has made himself seem more important than he is. he has always been putin's servant. he started out being sentenced to 12 years in soviet times for common street crimes, robbery and burglary. he got out of prison two years early, which means at that time from everything we know, probably made some kind of a deal with what was then the kgb, what became the fsb. at the time that he got out, putin was the deputy mayor of what was then st. petersburg. putin was responsible for overseeing the contracting that occurred as capitalism was coming to russia in st.

petersburg. so that means putin was responsible for overseeing the establishment of prigozhin's hot dog stand, grocery stores, then his restaurants. when putin was entertaining guests in st. petersburg, he would bring them to prigozhin's restaurants. when putin to the kremlin, he brought prigozhin to do catering and then have the catering responsibility is for the moscow public school system and to do some military catering and then military cleaning work all before he became the person who is responsible for military contracting. prigozhin has no combat experience. he is the middleman. he is the contractor. what russian soda media sources have been saying recently is that people believe that prigozhin has been kept on is because he has a long-standing relationship with the same organized criminal groups that putin was associated with in st. petersburg in the early 1990's,

that prigozhin knows who to pay off in contracts happen. we have to keep in mind everything is more expensive in russia than it was in the west because everybody has to take their top off the contract. currently, one of prigozhin's roles as spend to figure out who was paid what kind of money for the russian military. what seems to have happened is prigozhin's head got too big. he was being protected by putin so he believe he was more important than he actually was. this is just the latest step in a long-standing feud has had with the russian defense ministry. what we have seen is he essentially got stopped in his tracks. we don't know what is going to happen to him. one thing we have to keep in mind of everything we have seen recently is everybody we are analyzing is very skilled in disinformation and deception. what we're saying on the surface may not be what is happening in the background.

amy: can you see prigozhin going to belarus? also, the role of lukashenko in this? finally, on the issue of what has been agreed to -- there are some saying this came to a head because by july 1, prigozhin was insisting these military groups had to redo contracts. the deal being made now that some of these men, fighters for wagner, could be incorporated into the russian military. he did not mention the deal prigozhin made to get comics out of prison to fight in -- convex out of prison to fight. >> first of all, the deal the statement we have about the need to being made came from putin's spokesperson. itas a very general statement made. we don't have any more

information about that. certainly nothing has been written down. what is coming across on social media and also really good russian independent press source called medusa is lukashenko was primarily playing a role in this. he was an actor, a prop being put forth as the person who was doing the negotiation when in fact negotiation was probably happening by various members of putin's administration. what medusa as that is putin refused to speak with prigozhin. putin would not speak with him so it was various members of the putin regime making this deal. one of the names people have been putting forth is the lieutenant general who is had a lot of military experience, a lot of security experience. he was the chief of putin's security guards. he is now the governor of their

region of tula. it is not clear what the actual parameters of whatever agreement was reached are. we can imagine all kinds of things happening with belarus. can imagine this just gets forgotten, that prigozhin gets disappeared and we never hear from him again. we can imagine him flying to belarus and then flying to africa to take charge of his forces that are in africa with the understanding that now he is to stay outside of russia's immediate sphere and never be seen again that way. or we can see them going to belarus with a group of his forces, which is what "the wall street journal" as suggested and now establishing a new russian presidency and belarus, perhaps for the purpose of helping the crochet go stay in power now that there has been this -- lukashenko stay in power now that there has been this. giving more hope to the opposition forces in belarus and maybe the

deal that was reached is that now prigozhin go help lukashenko stay in power by adding to the belarus and security forces. it is all smoke and mirrors. weon't know what is happening. the most important thing to keep in mind is that prigozhin as an individual has never been quite as important as people have made him out to be and he overstepped his bounds over the last couple of days. it is very unlikely prigozhin comes out somehow on top in this. it has shown putin has been willing to allow himself to look weak. so the general sensibility is that even if it is not prigozhin that threatens putin going forward, now within putin's inner circle or going to be in bolded in a way they have not been before because putin did not come out of this looking like somebody was strong, who understood how to do with things.

i would point out before i stop here, itas not a bloodless event. with the russian military reported on saturday is that 13 russian airmen, mostly helicopter pilots, a couple who were flying fixed wing aircraft, were shot down by the wagner forces. that is something the russian military is not going to forget or forgive. it was not bloodless. there was bld spilled by russian military forces. i think where the beginning of what is going to happen but neither prigozhin or putin came out looking very good. amy: denis pilash, russia has the largest nuclear arsenal in the world. are you concerned putin, who has clearly been embarrassed by this, would want to distract the tension as he said he is moving tactical move -- nuclear weapons to belarus, you concerned about this in ukraine? >> where mostly concern with this and also with the fallout

after the dam destruction. near there are reports that region -- zaporizhzhia has also been mined. big problem about --prigozhin is not the only arlo garg with an army a big problem, prigozhin is not the only oligarch with an army. you have regional governors with military units as well. he give you more chaos but it also means -- amy: i want to thank you all for being with us. i want to thank denis pilash joining us from kyiv, ukraine political scientist. kimberly marten is a professor of political science at barnard college, columbia university.

and in moscow nina khrushcheva , is professor of international affairs at the new school. great-granddaughter of former soviet premier nikita khrushchev. we will continue to follow this. coming up next, on the first anniversary of the supreme words dobbs decision to overturn roe v. wade, we will get an update on the state of abortion access in the united states with amy littlefield. back in 30 seconds.

amy: "i owe you nothing" by seinabo sey. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. hundreds of abortion rights supporters rallied in washington, d.c. over the weekend to mark the first anniversary of this are praying towards overturning of abortion rights. this is one of the protesters. >> we need to be engaged. if we don't show up and participate, we get what we get. amy: there protests came as antitrust activists also rallied in d.c. this is republican presidential hopeful, former vice president mike pence, speaking to a gathering of conservatives who were talking about the decision by the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade as a historic victory he said that he said it

did not go far enough and called for a nationwide 15 week ban on abortion. vice pres. pence: because of your work and because of your prayers, the supreme court of united states sent roe v. wade to the as sheep of history where it belongs and give america a new beginning for life. amy: we're joined by amy littlefield, abortion access correspondent at "the nation." she has a piece in the special issue of "the nation" called "the body politics," her most recent article is headlined "the message they've received is that you don't deserve to be cared for: life on the abortion borderland." welcome back to democracy now! lay out what happened this week and talk and a larger way that what is happening around abortion in this country at a point where abortion is being banned in so many states and yet the support for abortion is skyrocketing.

>> thank you so much. it is great to be back with you. i started out my weekend on friday at the national right to left convention, gathering of the nation oldest antiabortion organization. you might expect year after the dobbs decision overturned roe v. wade the antiabortion movement would be celebrating. but that is not the case. that is because antiabortion leaders are coming to terms with two realities that are very unfortunate to them. the first is that abortion bans they have dreamed up instituting for decades that are now in place in 13 states, mostly concentrated in the south, are not working the way they hoped they would and there also deeply unpopular. we have seen six ballot initiatives in the year after. one -- all because of the

outrage over the dobbs decision. then we have seen the latest numbers coming from the society for family-planning that show in the nine months after the dobbs decision, the number of abortions dropped by 25,000. that is the abortions being recorded. that is a catastrophically high number because every person denied in abortion they want is a human rights tragedy. but for abortion right opponents who have dreamed of instituting these bans for generation, that is way lower than the number they expected. there were hoping would be in the hundreds of thousands. they realized the bans are not working. headlight in a fake -- because of the structure and clinicians are going to heroic links to get people access to

the care they need, abortions are still happening in every state, every day. people have told me there is more than enough medication abortion coming into the country and being circulated through these mutual aid networks to compensate for those 25,000 abortions that were not recorded in the nine months after dobbs. what we are going to see the coming months from the antiabortion movement our efforts to contend with the fact the public does not like their bands and the fact the bans are not working. what i saw the national right to life convention is leaders like james dobbs is the architect of citizens united, telling state affiliates we need to institute much water, more sweeping enforcement mechanisms like using rico laws were used to take down the mob using antitrafficking laws and to sweeten the deal, sugarcoat

those enforcement restrictions by using rape and incest exceptions. that is going to be the red herring we see to try to get much more extreme enforcement decisions, to try to make these bans that are working work better. we will see this pr campaign. abortion bans -- the antiabortion movement has realized the word "ban" makes their policies less popular. we will see them being called protections or limits. we are not going to see crisis pregnancy center as much anymore because there is now a lot of robust information about how deceptive these centers are so they are rebranding them as pregnancy resource centers as well. there's a marketing campaign going on to try to make their abortion bans were popular at a time when vast majority of americans disagree with the overturning of roe v. wade and also to institute much more sweeping enforcement mechanisms. that is from the wing of the movement -- go ahead. amy: know, keep going.

>> saturday i went to washington, d.c. and it is important to state the convention seems to be the wing of the movement that cares about public opinion. they care about that kind of subverted democracy by instituting these unpopular ban s. in washington, d.c., i went to a rally where mike pence spoke and they invited the leading gop candidates and pence accepted the invitation. he is vying to be candidate of them movement. they were rolling out i will say a much more overt plan. this is not more extreme, it but -- they are calling for using the 14th amendment to apply do process and you go protection to the embryo from the moment of fertilization.

the antiabortion group of live action said she believes this protection is already in place, that laws in states like new york to protect access to abortion are in violation of the 14th amendment. nursing attempt to wrap their heads around the fact they're not going to be able to pass new restrictions on abortion in this moment when abortion rights are at -- are historically popular. there chinese existing laws on the books and get courts or perhaps proceeded to buy into the fact the 14th a minute protects embryos from the moment of fertilization. the impact would be unfathomable. amy: let me ask you about a piece in the intercept that has the headline "the fbi is hunting a new domestic terror threat: abortion rights activists." can you explain what is going on at the national level? clearly, president biden, vice

president harris out on the first anniversary of the overturning of roe, supporting abortion rights. what is going on here? >> there is a federal law called the states act put into effect in the 1990's because antiabortion militants were barricading abortion clinics, chaining themselves to cars using nonviolent civil disobedience tactics to shut abortion access down. it is been sparsely enforced against antiabortion groups over the years. what we're seeing now is that law is being used to target groups like jane's revenge that are doing things like spray painting crisis messy centers. the intercept has done great reporting on the consequences of the biden administration feeling pressure to go after abortion rights groups. certainly, there's a sense from the antiabortion movement they are under attack, that they're getting threats, that groups

like james revenge are targeting crisis pregnancy center and there is a sort of more militant and also less militant ways that the public is showing the opposition to these policies. i want to emphasize, this is part of a concerted effort by the antiabortion movement to frame the opposition as extreme rather than being a majority. i think the real extremism that was on display was at the students for life rally in washington, d.c. where there was a man standing at the back of the rally holding a huge billboard sized sign that said "you can't end abortion of women can still get away with murder." this is related to an abolition movement to group gaining power by saying you need to criminalize women and put them in jail for abortions. this is the fringe now but we have seen over time in the

antiabortion movement there french has become the center. i would keep an eye on these growing efforts to punish people who have abortions and self manage their abortions. amy: amy littlefield, abortion correspondent at the nation. we will continue the conver

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